click here for TELECOMMUNICATIONS Acceptable Use Policy

 

INTERNET Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy (“this AUP”) is intended to help protect our customers and the Internet community from unacceptable or harmful use of the Internet. This AUP describes activities that constitute unacceptable use of our Internet services. This AUP further describes our procedures for addressing violations of this AUP, including the termination of user accounts. You are fully responsible for all use of our Internet services via your account. Use of our Internet services constitutes acceptance of this AUP. We reserve the right to modify and update this AUP at any time.  Use of Colton’s services after changes to the AUP are posted on Colton’s website, will constitute acceptance of any new or additional terms of the AUP.

Colton cannot monitor, verify, warrant, or vouch for the accuracy and quality of the information acquired from the Internet.  For this reason, you must exercise your best judgment in relying on information obtained from the Internet, and also should be aware that some material posted to the Internet is sexually explicit or otherwise offensive.  Because Colton cannot monitor or censor the Internet, and will not attempt to do so, Colton shall not be responsible for injury to its customers that results from inaccurate, unsuitable, offensive of illegal Internet communications.  You use this Internet at your own risk.

Further, Colton does not monitor, review, edit or censor and shall not be responsible for any information that you or anyone else creates.  When you place information on the Internet, you have the same liability as other authors for copyright infringement, defamation, and other harmful speech.  Keep in mind that your postings may affect other persons and may harm Colton’s goodwill, business reputation and operations.

Unacceptable Use of Internet Services:

Therefore, it is a violation of this AUP to:

  1. Engage in any activity that is illegal under federal, state, or local law or regulation.
  2. Send or cause a third party to send unsolicited bulk e-mails, chain-letters or mass advertising, collect or harvest e-mail addresses, screen names or other identifiers for the purpose of sending bulk e-mails or mass advertising, participate in the use of software, including spyware designed to facilitate such activity, or otherwise engage in spamming, no matter whether the purpose is commercial, informational, or some other purpose, without the consent of the user.
  3. Send email to the email address of any person or entity that has asked you not to send email to such email address.
  4. Engage in excessive multiple posting to newsgroups. As a general rule, this entails posting the identical or nearly identical message to 10 or more groups within a two-week period. Users should become familiar with and comply with the guidelines or community standards governing the newsgroups in which they participate.
  5. Engage in mailbombing or otherwise interfere with or disrupt other network users, network services or network equipment or otherwise  cause a performance degradation to facilities used to deliver the service (e.g., by transmitting a virus or other software, code or files intended to limit or disrupt the function of any software, hardware or telecommunications equipment).
  6. Use or distribute information, tools or devices designed or used for compromising security or whose use is unauthorized (e.g., viruses, worms, Trojan horses, pinging, flooding, mailbombing, or denial of service attacks).
  7. Advertise, transmit or otherwise make available any software, program, product or service that is designed to violate this AUP, including the facilitation of spam, initiation of pinging, flooding, mailbombing, denial of service attacks, and piracy of software.
  8. Export encryption software over the Internet or otherwise, to points outside the United States.
  9. Resell or share our Internet services or access to our Internet services to others or otherwise make available to anyone outside the customer’s premises the ability to use the service in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, such as through WiFi, without our written permission.  You agree not to use the service for operation as an Internet service provider.
  10. Obtain, or attempt to obtain, illegal or unauthorized access to, monitor, or use any data, computers, software, accounts, systems, or networks without the express permission of the owner.
  11. Attempt to penetrate the security of another individual’s system, attempt to circumvent the user authentication or security of any host, network or account, or conduct any activity that might be used as a precursor to an attempted system penetration (e.g., port scan, stealth scan or other information gathering activity).
  12. Use or run servers that provide network content or other services to anyone outside the customer’s premises and local area network, including but not limited to email servers, Web hosting servers, file sharing servers, Linux distribution servers and proxy servers.
  13. Use or run programs that provide network content to anyone outside of the customer’s premises.
  14. Maintain an open mail relay or relay mail via another site’s mail server without express permission of that site.
  15. Cancel, remove or block access to any postings, information or messages other than your own, except for postings in your name that have been forged.
  16. Impersonate any person or entity.
  17. Disclose your password for accessing our Internet Services to a third party, or otherwise facilitate unauthorized access.
  18. Add, remove or modify identifying network header information (“spoofing”) in an effort to deceive or mislead, or any attempt to impersonate any person by using forged headers or other identifying information.
  19. Transmit, post, store, link, reproduce or distribute another’s intellectual property or proprietary information, including trade secrets, trademarks, software, right of publicity or copyright information, or create derivative works thereof, without express authorization of the rights holder.
  20. Transmit, post, store, link, reproduce or distribute any material that is obscene, contains explicit or graphic descriptions or accounts of sexual acts or sexual language of a violent or threatening nature or constitutes child pornography under applicable law.
  21. Threaten bodily harm, destruction of property or otherwise engage in harassment.
  22. Transmit, post, store, link, reproduce or distribute any threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive, fraudulent or tortious information or information that is invasive of another’s privacy or violates the personal rights of others.
  23. Transmit, post, store, link, reproduce or distribute material that victimizes, harasses, degrades, threatens to harm or intimidates an individual or group of individuals, including without limitation minors, on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age or disability.
  24. Engage in activities, whether lawful or unlawful, that Colton determines to be harmful to its customers.

Procedural Matters

Anyone who believes that there has been a violation of this AUP should contact us at customercare@colton.com and provide the following information:

  1. The nature of the alleged violation, along with any supporting evidence;
  2. The date and time of the alleged violation, including the time zone; and
  3. The IP address used to commit the alleged violation.

We retain full discretion to investigate and determine whether a violation of this AUP has occurred. When we determine that a violation of this AUP has occurred, we retain full discretion to determine the response that is appropriate under the circumstances, including without limitation any one or more of the following actions:

  1. Issue a warning to the user;
  2. Remove or block access to any postings, content or information that violate this AUP;
  3. Shut down a Website;
  4. Suspend newsgroup posting privileges;
  5. Deny access to the Internet;
  6. Suspend the customer’s account;
  7. Terminate the customer’s account;
  8. Bill the customer for administrative costs and/or reactivation charges; and
  9. Take such actions as it deems appropriate.

Colton may disclose information, including but not limited to, information concerning a customer, a transmission made using our network, or a website, in order to comply with a court order subpoena, summons, discovery request, warrant, statute, regulation or government request.  Colton assumes no obligation to inform the customer that customer information has been provided and in some cases may be prohibited by law from giving such notice.

Colton may disclose customer information or information transmitted over its network where necessary to protect Colton and others from harm, or where such disclosure is necessary to the proper operation of the system.

Colton is required by law to notify law enforcement agencies when it becomes aware of the presence of child pornography on or being transmitted through the Colton network.

 

Testing and Measuring Broadband Performance

The FCC requires COLTONTEL to test and measure the broadband performance of randomly selected customers and submit the tests results. You agree to allow COLTONTEL to use the router provided for your broadband service in order to access, collect, process and distribute information that is required by the FCC. You specifically agree to allow COLTONTEL to test and measure the quality of your broadband connection, including but not limited to speed and latency, and provide such information to the FCC. COLTONTEL will access, collect, process and distribute the information in accordance with all applicable privacy laws and rules and will not use the information for any other purpose. COLTONTEL will only access and collect the information that is required to be submitted to the FCC. COLTONTEL will not access or collect your content or monitor your internet activity.